Monte Carlo is a district of Monaco, and the Principality, squeezed between sea and mountain, has no room for a course. Its golf therefore moved up the hill, onto Mont Agel, on French soil above La Turbie. It was founded by Monte Carlo's English colony and the Société des Bains de Mer, and you reach it by a hairpin road that leaves the sea behind for scrubland and limestone. In twenty minutes you go from the yachts of Port Hercule to the pines of Mont Agel.
The appeal of a Monaco base lies in its position, halfway between the Côte d'Azur and the Italian Riviera. To the east, the motorway runs to the border and Sanremo, whose Golf degli Ulivi hosted the Italian Open five times between 1934 and 1948. To the west, Royal Mougins, designed by Robert von Hagge, takes an hour by road but offers an entirely different, more modern golf. Three courses, three characters, and two countries.
The rest of the stay happens down below, in the Principality: Place du Casino and its Belle Époque grand hotels, the Rock and its lanes, one great Michelin-starred table, Monegasque cooking and the bars where you replay the round. Three to five nights are enough to play all three courses. A car, or a driver, is essential for reaching the golf; in town, most things are done on foot.
